Les Accusés

On 6 March 1983, a woman named Cheryl Araujo was gang-raped by four men on a pool table at Big Dan's Tavern in New Bedford, Massachusetts. A number of men in the bar were cheering the attackers on and after the victim escaped into the street, they continued drinking and joking about the incident.

Ms. Araujo, 21, and all four of her assailants were Portuguese, a major ethnicity in former New England "mill towns" like New Bedford. The Portuguese community sided with its errant sons, rather than their victim, and Cheryl Araujo was basically driven out of town by the animosity of her neighbors. She was killed in an automobile accident in Florida in 1986, leaving behind two children.

This film was loosely based on the Araujo case. Several of Jodie Foster's scenes were so powerful they nearly brought me to tears -- specifically, the scene where she confronts lawyer Kelly McGillis in the latter's apartment during a dinner party; her courtroom testimony; and the horrifying rape scene.

Kelly McGillis seemed to be sleepwalking through this entire film, with only a few moments when she roused herself a bit, but not enough to help. Even so, she appeared more sensitive than the volunteer from the rape crisis center, who stood NEXT TO the ER doctor during the post-assault pelvic exam. If I had been on that table, I'd have wrenched a foot out of the stirrups and kicked her. A woman who has just been gang raped doesn't need one more person invading her privacy.

I agree with an earlier poster who noted the difficult roles of the "cheer and clap" trio. It must have been extremely challenging for a guy who has any sensitivity at all about women to convincingly portray the kind of jerks those three were. My hat's off to all three of them.

I was appalled by one reviewers comments on this movie, stating that a rape victim "got what she deserved". NO one, Woman or man, deserves to be raped, violated or harmed just because they were at the wrong place.

This movie is based on a true story, and the actors were very moving. People make mistakes, someone could be that upset and choose to behave in a manner not appropriate, yet when that Person chooses to stop and say NO, then No is it. No, Stop, Don't, these words do not mean, well, I ask for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise, I feel sorry for because they are sad, lonely and deprived of self worth.

Jodi Foster Is a great actress and puts all her strength in her roles. She is very talented and she and Kelly M. made this movie. Hopefully the person that had to endure this horrid act, is going on, with strength and success.

One of the roughest films ever produced that is pure misery to sit through due to its realism and Jodie Foster's striking Oscar-winning performance. Foster stars as a sexual victim who tries to get prison sentences imposed upon the men who cheered on her gang rape at a sleazy roadhouse. Foster is far from being an angel herself and every little thing in her past seems to come back and haunt her. A great supporting turn from Kelly McGillis (who plays Foster's lawyer) just adds to Foster's show-stopping role. Not a film I love, but a good film that displays the seemingly ungodly cinematic talents of Jodie Foster. 4 stars out of 5.

Jodie Foster plays Sarah Tobias, a small-town waitress with a bad reputation(and drug user) who is brutally attacked by three men in a bar, who were also being cheered on by some of the onlookers. Sarah is determined to convince the District Attorney on the case(Kelly McGillis) to bring it to trial, not just the three attackers, but the onlookers as well.

Powerful film is supremely well acted by Jodie Foster(Academy Award Winner)Film runs the risk of being crass exploitation, but is well directed, and again it is the sympathetic and defiant performance of Jodie as this wronged, violated woman that makes this film work as well as it does.

Not for the faint-hearted.

I saw this film with my girlfriend about a year after I graduated from college, where I had lived in the alpha-male, females-as-accessories environment of a fraternity house. While I know of nothing that went on in my fraternity that compares to the horrible events of this film, I was struck that some of the beer-fueled conversations I had with my fraternity brothers could have led to the same results with more likelihood than I realized at the time (or care to admit even to this day). Suffice it to say, I cried all the way home from this movie, as much from shame as anything else.

Twelve years later, I still cannot recall being as horrifyingly struck by a scene as I was during the rape scene at the end of "The Accused" -- and I definitely do not have the stomach to see it again. The movie, in my view, is exceedingly well-acted (Foster's Oscar was well-deserved) and well-told. It has the rare gift of touching the viewer viscerally for the entire duration -- discomfort being the feeling.

This isn't virtuoso film-making like "The Godfather", but at the same time I can think of no greater compliment for a movie than it truly opened my eyes to a new perspective that I was not mature enough to grasp on my own. I left the theater a different person -- how often can that be said?